


Election Night

by MaraMcGregor



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 2020 NHL Coronavirus Pause, 2020 US Presidential Election, Comfort, M/M, Married Couple, Post-Canon, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:40:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaraMcGregor/pseuds/MaraMcGregor
Summary: Post-Election 2020 coverage of Georgia turning blue. Suzanne calls Bitty and Jack in the middle of the night to share the news.
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Comments: 5
Kudos: 70





	Election Night

“Bits.”

Bitty rolled over and mumbled into his pillow. It was dark, comfortable, and the real world didn't exist outside of the pillow.

Jack shook his shoulder. “Bits!”

“NOoooo - I don’t wanna. Let me ignore everything until it’s called.”

Jack chuckled. “You’d better get up before your parents call.”

As if on cue, Bitty’s phone started playing Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You, his mom’s favorite Dolly Parton song.

“And there it is.”

Bitty blindly reached for his phone and grunted when Jack placed it in his open palm. He didn’t even get the phone to his ear before his Mama’s yelling jolted him fully awake.

“We did it! Dicky, we did it! Georgia’s blue!”

Bitty sat up and blinked at Jack, then stared at his phone. “It really flipped?”

“Yes, Dicky! That Ms. Abrams and her friends got all those new registrations and they turned out! The counties have all reported and it’s just down to mail in. And that’s breaking hard for Biden. And it looks like we’ll have a runoff for the Senate. My goodness, Dicky. After everything they tried to do to stop people from voting, I wasn’t sure.”

Bitty could feel his eyes start to tear up. He didn’t want to cry, but this was almost too much to hope for. “It’s really over?”

Jack slid into bed next to him and pulled him into his lap. “It’s over, Bits.”

“Well, we still have the runoffs for Ossoff and the Reverend. But, after seeing that it can be done, I really think we can pull it off. That Ms. Abrams really showed everyone that they mattered. The air is just buzzing down here.”

“Oh Mama, I can’t even imagine.” Bitty poked Jack’s thigh and pointed at the TV. 

Jack obediently flipped the channel to MSNBC and turned the closed captioning on and muted the volume. And there it was, Georgia in bright blue. And a wonderful projected winner checkmark next to Joe Biden’s name. The electoral vote count was updated 306 to 232. Finally, Bitty felt like he could exhale. Just a bit. Just for a moment. He didn’t even realize he was crying until Jack had passed him a tissue. 

His breathing must have been off because his Mama asked, “Dicky, are you okay?”

“Yes, Mama. I’m okay. I’m just a bit overwhelmed. Goodness, I didn’t realize how tired I was until this moment. I feel like I haven’t slept right in four years.”

“Oh, baby, I know. But, it’s gonna be okay. Maybe not right away, but soon. It’s gonna still be real scary for a little while. You know that man is not going to just go quietly. And there’s still this COVID mess to deal with. But, at least there will be someone who knows what he’s doing in the White House. It won’t be perfect, but it will get better. It will. I can feel it.”

Bitty snuggled back into Jack’s chest. “I can feel it, too.”

Jack pressed a kiss into Bitty’s temple and turned his attention to the TV screen. The pundits were chatting excitedly, they looked downright relieved. He was so happy for Bitty and his family. He could feel the tension that had immediately drained out of Bitty’s body as he slumped backwards, truly calm for the first time in years.

“Mama, I have to tell you, if it hadn’t turned out this way, we were going to move to Canada. Jack would have kept an apartment here in Providence, but we were debating if I shouldn’t just move to Montreal and stay with Alicia and Bob until Jack could get traded north of the border. I just - I couldn’t do another four years. It was too much -”

“Dicky, I know. Your daddy and I would have wanted you to go. With how much hate that man has in his soul and what he gets others to do, I would have been scared for you and Jack. Even all the way up there in Rhode Island.”

“People are ignorant all over. There are plenty of  _ his _ supporters up here. Just shy of 40 percent voted for him even in Rhode Island. A bunch of them love showing up to Falcs games and get all mad at Jack ‘ruining his father’s legacy’. They have nice large, misspelled signs that the jumbotron thankfully ignores.”

The screen flipped back to Steve Kornacki as he highlighted all of the blue areas of Georgia. There was going to be a recount. Then there was going to be a runoff. Two senate seats separated the Democrats from controlling both houses and the presidency. And the only options left were the two Georgia runoffs. This was going to get bad.

“Mama, you be sure to get your absentee ballots in as soon as you can. And then maybe you and Daddy should think about trying to get a COVID test and coming up here until the dust has settled. You know how it’ll get there. Or maybe see if we can get an exemption for you to visit Bob and Alicia for a time. You  _ are _ their family, after all.”

Suzanne got quiet on the other end of the phone. “I’ll talk to your father about it. Christmas and Hanukkah in Canada does sound lovely.”

Jack lifted the phone from Bitty’s hand and took over the conversation, “Whenever you want to come up, you are more than welcome. I’ll let my parents know to expect you. They still have your winter coats from your last visit.” Jack couldn’t contain a half-smile, “Of course, since the coats are in Canada, you should probably bring several layers to put on in the plane before you land in Montreal. Maman and Papa can bring your coats with them.”

“Of course, dear. I’ll make sure we are plenty prepared. We’ll have to make sure we ship all the presents. Is there anything we should bring for Hanukah? I have to admit we’ve never celebrated with anyone down here.”

Bitty chirped, “Make sure Daddy is ready to deal with two competitive professional athletes over playing dreidel and a ridiculous amount of trying to cheat.”

“I do not cheat," Jack protested.

“Sweetpea, you kept tapping your heel on the floor. I know your nervous ticks and that’s not one of them. You were trying to interrupt the dreidel spinning.”

Jack spluttered. “I did not! Besides, Papa was the one we had to institute rules for if the dreidel was knocked so hard it went onto the floor.”

Bitty shook his head. “So that’s why Alicia took away the table and made two grown men lay down on the floor instead of using perfectly good chairs?”

Jack cleared his throat and ignored Bitty poking his side. “I’ll just call Maman and Papa and let them know to expect you. They’ll love having you. And we can all be together until the NHL figures out what they are going to do about starting the season in the New Year.”

“Well, I’ll let you boys get back to bed. I’m sorry about waking you up, but I just couldn’t sleep when all this was going on.”

Jack tugged Bitty in to his side and turned the speaker phone on. “I was staying up anyway. It was no trouble.”

Bitty burrowed into Jack and yawned. “I really appreciate you calling, Mama. I didn’t know how much I needed this good news until you called. Have a good night! And finally maybe we can all have some good dreams.”

“Good night, boys. I’ll call Alicia and Bob in the morning and we can plan for a family holiday season. Oh, I’m so excited!”

“Good night!”

“Night, Mama.”

Jack hung up Bitty’s phone and wrapped him in a hug. “Do you want to watch the TV anymore?”

Bitty yawned again and shook his head. “No. I feel like I could sleep for a decade. Goodness! I didn’t realize just how exhausted these last four years have made me until now.” 

Jack slid under the covers and turned off the TV, one arm still wrapped around Bitty.

Bitty snuggled into Jack’s chest and fell asleep almost instantly.

Jack breathed deeply and watched Bitty’s breath even out. The past four years were difficult, the last year had really been a challenge to make it through. The faint lines that had been ever present even in Bitty’s sleep were smooth. Even unconscious, Bitty looked more peaceful than he had in a long time. Jack knew they would still have a rough couple of months, but he would let this moment be. It would be a long time to recover, but it seemed like there was a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. He curled around Bitty and let himself drift off, not nearly as anxious about the future as he had been a couple of days ago.


End file.
